


Level Up

by LightningQuartz



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Kenma is a big nerd, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-08
Updated: 2018-05-08
Packaged: 2019-05-03 21:01:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 821
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14577579
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LightningQuartz/pseuds/LightningQuartz
Summary: Kenma levels up in life





	Level Up

**Level Up**

Playing against Hinata Shouyou was terrifying.

Staring into the net was like watching hundreds of adjacent screens, all of them revealing one universal truth.

He was completely, and utterly, under-leveled for this mission.

A flash of orange, then, a scream. One indicative that the boss was going to release a powerful move.

The Karasuno duo sends a spike,  _well,_ Shouyou sends a spike, but it's Kageyama who sets it up. Kageyama is also terrifying, Kenma is willing to admit as such. The other setter is colder than ice, but hotter than the sun, intense, but so, so distant.

Kuro flops to the side, arm extended, barely managing to react in time, but, like so many healers in Kenma's life: too slow. The volleyball ricochets off of Kuro's tanned forearm and bounces out of bounds.

Hinata screams again; Kenma watches, astonished. The faces of all of his teammates light up, equally as fiery as Hinata's hair.

 _Area of Effect buff..._ He cringes, this wasn't going to be good.

Their first set is close, but after Hinata screams, it's over and so is the set after that.

_Very under-leveled indeed._

After the match, Hinata approaches, bringing forth a symphony, boss music unlike any other.

Kenma's heart thunders, his fingers twitch and he tenses.

"Y-You're Ko-Kozume, right?" Hinata's voice is much quieter than he'd theorized while staring at the boy from the other side of the net. The stutter too, was unexpected.

Kenma nods, "...Kenma." Hinata blinks. "Call me Kenma." Hinata blinks again, then goes bright pink, from hairline all the way down into the V of his jersey.

 _Charging for an attack?_ Kenma tenses further.

"Y-You're very- r-really good, err... I-I.." Hinata stutters out what Kenma assumes to be a compliment, normally he'd be bored with dialogue like this, very similar to that of a poorly written side quest.

"Um..." It takes Kenma a moment to realize that he hasn't responded, nor has a dialogue option appeared in front of him, ready to be clicked.

"Here!" Hinata's hands jerk forward, like a rogue with max agility. Kenma finds his hands forced open by clammy, burning hands and something being placed inside his palms.

"Hinata!" Someone screams, one of the Karasuno guild members, Hinata stares at him, through him, around him, inside of him, like observing a bug, then runs off with a wave.

Kenma pockets his Key Item.

Kuro guides him to the locker room with a hand on his shoulder.

A shower later and a change of clothes later, he ends up walking home with Kuro instead of taking the train. He hates walking. Fast-travel didn't make his legs, already sore, hurt.

Kuro grunts and yells the entire way home, Kenma has no doubt that they'd get kicked off the train if they'd used it.

His friend,  _best_ friend, doesn't say bye as they walk past the gates of their neighboring houses. Kenma doesn't bother.

In his bedroom, hours later after explaining his day to his parents, eating dinner, then promising to study and not play video games past sun down, Kenma finds himself digging into his gym bag for the first time ever.

In his damp, gross and rather disgusting club uniform, he finds his Key Item, a gift from another PC. He tugs it out, analyzing it for the first time since receiving it. Kenma rolls it over in his hands, looking for clues or hints for this quest.

The only thing he finds is tiny, messy scrawl.

_An IM handle?_

Hinata wants to party up with him? That seems to be the implication.

Kenma tugs out his phone from his pants. Looks up the handle, and downloads the application it belongs to.

 **"Hinata?"**  He sends out, trepidation making him look away from the screen for a long moment.

He climbs onto his bed and under the blankets, avoiding wasting unnecessary energy. His phone buzzes sometime in the next few minutes, as Kenma is resting his eyes.

The soundtrack of life begins again.

 **"Kenma-san! I was hoping you would message me! I really admired the way you played... I mean the look on your face was..."** Despite the lack of actual content, Kenma receives this message. He hums quietly, wondering if he should bother responding.

**"And you are really cute so I wanted to talk to you I hope I didn't come off too forward"**

_Oh. Oh dear._

Critical hits, so many crits on his body, his entire party just wiped out with a single line of code that happened to turn into a compliment and confession wrapped into one.

Kenma reacted as naturally as he ever would.

He screamed.

Then again.

Then picked up his phone, he could do this.

He realized something while trying to form actual words: Hinata Shouyou was no side quest.

Kenma was going to level up in life.

He was going to do this

*this = asking Hinata Shouyou out on a date.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys, I am pretty close to being homeless. If thou has money to spare, I take commissions and have a Ko-Fi link. /lytnyng


End file.
